Ho Chi Minh : a biography by Pierre Brocheux(
Book
)27
editions published
between
2000
and
2011
in
4
languages
and held by
1,235 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Ho Chi Minh is one of the towering figures of the twentieth century, considered an icon and father of the nation by many Vietnamese.
Pierre Brocheux's biography of Ho Chi Minh is a brilliant feat of historical engineering. In a concise and highly readable
account, he negotiates the many twists and turns of Ho Chi Minh's life and his multiple identities, from impoverished beginnings
as a communist revolutionary to his founding of the Indochina Communist Party and the League for Independence of Vietnam,
and ultimately to his leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and his death in 1969. Biographical events are adroitly
placed within the broader historical canvas of colonization, decolonization, communism, war, and nation building. Brocheux's
vivid and convincing portrait of Ho Chi Minh goes further than any previous biography in explaining both the myth and the
man, as well as the times in which he was situated

Indochina : an ambiguous colonization, 1858-1954 by Pierre Brocheux(
Book
)13
editions published
between
2009
and
2011
in
English
and held by
497 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Combining new approaches with a groundbreaking historical synthesis, this accessible work is the most thorough and up-to-date
general history of French Indochina available in English. Unique in its wide-ranging attention to economic, social, intellectual,
and cultural dimensions, it is the first book to treat Indochina's entire history from its inception in Cochinchina in 1858
to its crumbling at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and on to decolonization. Basing their account on original research as well as on
the most recent scholarship, Pierre Brocheux and Daniel H́emery tell this story from a perspective that is neither Eurocentric
nor nationalistic but that carefully considers the positions of both the colonizers and the colonized. With this approach,
they are able to move beyond descriptive history into a rich exploration of the ambiguities and complexities of the French
colonial period in Indochina. Rich in themes and ideas, their account also sheds new light on the national histories of the
emerging nation-states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, making this book essential reading for students, scholars, and general
readers interested in the region, in the Vietnam War, or in French imperialism, among other topics."--Publisher description